Mr. Niall Garvey:

To respond to the Deputy's question on resources and the allocation between gardaí and communities, to put it in perspective, Operation Thor was launched this week and we welcome it. It speaks of providing 40 new high-powered vehicles for the Garda, which are essential, but if there were 400 new vehicles, there still would not be one in every parish around the country. On the other hand, if there is a community alert group - particularly one actively engaging in text alert - there might be 300 people in a parish all watching and communicating with gardaí and receiving communication back for next to no cost, relatively speaking. That should be borne in mind in speaking about resources.